One Condition to Forgive French for Betrayal of America

With the war in Iraq almost over, it is a time for forgiveness. I, for one, will forgive you, the French people.

As a people, you acted out of distrust of American Power — perhaps, with some reason — although, it occurs to me that, were America not worthy of your trust, you would still have American Marines patrolling your streets.

You acted out of memory loss from your days under Nazi occupation during WWII.

But mainly, you acted out of a naivety concerning the brutality of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party Regime. However, even many of our own were infected with the same naivety that allowed them to condone Saddam’s torture or killing of 200,000+ Iraqis. The same naivety that allowed us (the free world) to ignore the murder of 2,000,000 Cambodians under Pol Pot, the annihilation of 20,000 in the Syrian town of Hama under Hafez Assad, the continuing oppression of 22,000,000 North Koreans under Kim Jong-Il, and the deaths of countless Africans under a myriad of oppressive regimes and renegade governments.

Yes, I can forgive you. Your government, however, acted for purely economic reasons and that action cannot stand. You and I have one beautiful, wondrous thing in common — we both live under Democracies. Neither is perfect. Indeed, the very nature of Democracies belies perfection. However, you and I have the unique right to vote out our leaders when their actions demand their removal.

Your President, Mr. Jacque Chirac, was given much of the same data that compelled our government to act, yet wouldn’t. Your President knew of Saddam’s atrocities but ignored them.

Your President voted for the UN Resolution 1441 then, blatantly backtracked. The

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